Taipei, Sept. 18 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian lauded Tuesday a World Trade Organization working party's approval of the document for Taiwan's membership as a significant milestone and a reconfirmation of the island's vital role in the international community.
Minutes after a WTO working party in Geneva cleared the last hurdle for Taiwan's WTO accession, Chen said in Taipei that this is a hard-earned achievement by his administration on the basis laid down by the preceding governments.
Once being a full member of WTO, Chen said the island will have a wide stage to act in the field of international trade and will further integrate the island into the international community.
He said the island's WTO membership will reinforce its people's confidence in themselves and encourage them to overcome the hardship brought by Typhoon Nari which hit the island since Monday.
After an 12-year process, a World Trade Organization (WTO) working party approved in Geneva Tuesday the necessary documents for Taiwan's membership in the organization Tuesday, making Taiwan's bid only one step short of being formally approved.
Following the working party's recommendation, the WTO is expected to formally embrace Taiwan in its ministerial meeting in Qatar in November, and after the documents are ratified by Taiwan's administrative and legislative branches and 30 days after they are sent to the WTO Secretariat, the island economy will officially become a WTO member, 11 years after its application.